and here is my Take on the techniques:
I loved Tim’s brayer technique and as soon as I saw it had the thought of how cool it would be to allow the colours to blend together a little, of course I tried 4 different pieces of white cardstock and each one turned out completely differently so I went with it.

Instead of doing each colour separately like Tim did I dropped a few drops of each colour on my craft mat. Then bounced the brayer over the colours. You can see the results in my background.

I used a bella chipboard frame covered in Rock Candy Crackle and then some various stains.

What I love the most about the frame is the piece of worn leather that is actually from an old Jeans Label that was so worn whatever had been in it before was gone so I stamped one of Tim’s Stamps on it from a travel set I have. Stamped in Fired Brick

I also used the big map stamp with weathered wood distress ink for a little bit of background texture.

Added in some stickers I got off ebay that fit in with the whole Tim Holtz look. Added some tissue tape, and buttons and viola My Mixed Media Journaling Page for July (along with Tim’s Alphabet cards for the July)

I know cutting it fine, but life has been a bit of a roller coaster of late to say the least.

I have spent the last two days working on my version of Tims March Tag.

I will post the pic then break it down for you all 🙂

my idea started with cutting some tissue paper into strips (I just folded it over a few times so it made really long strips), and then using some of the left over mist I had made for my bear (a mix of stream colour wash and mowed lawn re inker) and misted it, tossing it around as I went to get a semi even coating. I then misted over it again with a pearl mist that I made using perfect pearls ‘pearl’ and water.

Used some multi medium over the mowed lawn and started laying down my ‘grass’ strips. I also added extra at the top I did little V shapes and at first pasted them with the V point facing up then did them facing down, did another layer of strips, and added in some scrunched up along the top to create a morefluffy grass like texture.

I got a new stamp this week an Imaginisce snag em stamp of a Chick and I could not resist using it on my page. So using inspiration from Dyan Reaverly I could not resist stamping the wee chick onto my page and also stamping them onto some plain white cardstock and painting them in Distress ink 🙂 I did however also grab my trusty prima craft knife and cut out the wing so that it looked like they could also flap away, I added a little glitter to the flowers on them with some glue gloss, and could not resist finishing one off with a smidge of Brown paper twine so it looked a little like it had a worm in its beak. I also added a little extra grass so it looked like my birdie was resting in the grass.

I then felt like getting a little bit more background texture so used a spotty piece of grungeboard that I have as a stencil and added some spots in Malted Milk paint dabber, then used Cool perri paint dabber to over Tattered Angels glimmer screen of a butterfly, and then also misted over it with Purple Twilight Colour wash. I did a simmilar thing on the other side with a flourish stencil, however I misted and then painted so it gave a more muted effect.

I added in my addage ticket. For me easter is a time of hope. Used some seasonal chit chat words in my grass.

Then used a grungeboard circle to create my sun. The Sun is coloured with terracotta paint dabber and then I melted lemon fantasy film over the top to create my Sun.

Then It was time for my butterflies, I don’t own the bunny die. I do however own the silver tinsel twine however I chose not to use it. Not because I did not think the technique Tim showed us with the melting and the alcohol ink was not awesome but because it is an easter page and I really loved the idea of using easter egg foil instead. So I did. It appeals to me in a few ways its a free resource, its recycling and its always pretty colours and so shiny. I also inked around the edges of the Almanac Paper with some vintage photo and did the same for the butterflies I used later.

I cut my butterflies out of Almanac paper from Prima just to add a little of an old world look to match the Hope tag and because I have to be honest and say I really love the complete mish mash of the Distress/old look mixed with the pastels and brighter flowers.

I then cut out some tattered florals flowers from white cardstock, Used distress stains over them, misted over them with my trusty home made pearl mist and dried them.

I then layered them and moulded them a little adding in a button to their centers that had some of the lime and white paper twine through the holes in the buttons.

I then added some rhinestones to the positive butterfly images and added them to the page

Lastly I doodled in with a white paint sharpie the stems and leaves of my flowers painted over a coat of distress stain dabbing it off to keep it light and then used a Zig writer to go around the edges so the would pop a little more.

And there you have it my journey to my Mixed Media page for March. I know its Autumn in Australia I just really love the pastels and easter colours.

I was so excited to see when Tim Holtz announced his Tattered Floral Challenge. I got the Die off my Sister for Christmas last year.

I had so many ideas go through my mind, another one of my pretty hair accessories, a bouquet, something to wear, the possibilities were only limited by imagination and resources.

As the entries started to pour in. I wanted something truly unique, something no one else would do.

A 4″ tall tattered floral Bear!

Sooo the idea for a new flower bear was born. This one has the fabric hand coloured with Colour Washes (one stream mixed with mowed lawn distress re inker to make it a bit more green and stem/leaf like). The challenge was that I still can not find my mini bear joints and eyes no matter how much I search and search for them. So this bear is string jointed and the eyes are pearls covered in Stream Alcohol ink.

What I love about these bears is the fact that their bodies are like the stem of the flower with their little faces blossoming in the center of the flower.

To get the flower I stamped Tim’s Flutter ATC stamp over the fabric with Archivals Jet black. Then used some colour washes (stream, butterscotch, purple twilight and cranberry they sort of all melded together in the fabric I had) and added some fabric stiffner to the flower. I used one of the other flowers to create the leaves by misting with the leftover mix of stream colour wash and mowed lawn re-inker,

I also misted white pearl cotton with butterscotch to create the bears nose and mouth. The head is also misted in butterscotch.

I used Tim’s paper twine split in two to wrap around the bears legs to give a sort of viney roots look.
here are some more pics of The Tattered Floral Bear.

I love how quirky and funny this is. It was how I left the bear to dry overnight so the bottom leaves would stick and not fall off

and a couple in a wee flowerpot I have with a colour wash next to her to show you just how teeny she really is:

This year I am undertaking a project it started as 365 days of love letters to strangers but is evolving into something that encompasses everything from letters, cards and postcards (all handmade by me) to small handmade items and other such things.

It is quite exciting to see what I will come up with next for this project think of it like a giant year filled with random acts of kindness. Imagine walking along and finding a letter or small gift from a stranger just for you for no reason other than to let you know you are cared for. 365 Days of Love. I am sharing everything I write on my Heavenly Musings Blog

So it will take a few posts but I really want to share what I have been creating especially as I have really enjoyed the process.

Lets start with some postcards (using tattered angels stamps and various other things and lots of distress and Tim Holtz stuff of course)
This was just me playing and stepping out of my ‘usual’ style a bit

I think this next postcard is on of my favorites. I really love the way the salty ocean stain and Picket fence paint dabber mixed to create the ocean, plus I love blending the stains to create beautiful sunsets its really easy and effective.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I adore my midnight fairy stamps. I totally love how sponging a little pewter stain over 3 different blue stains gives this a more mystical look

and finally for this post another sunset with something else I am rather addicted to butterflies

This year challenging myself to do 12 coasters instead of tags has been yes a challenge. Coasters are much smaller than the tags that are usually used. They are just 4″ squares.

It is with a fondness and some sadness though that I say goodbye to the 12 tags of 2012 and reveal the piece of wall art I created with my coasters.

I know that this year will see even more creativity and I already have my idea ready and waiting for the first tag of 2013 (where would we be without Mr Holtz’s monthly inspiration).

Yes I added a little to some of the tags, an image here, a little glitter there, nothing major bar the complete reboot of my Febuary (oops almost typed fabuary) coaster on which I did keep two of my original elements just gave them a better backdrop as it were.

So here it is the very Last installment of my 12 coasters of 2012 the finished Canvas (painted in antique linen crackle paint, with letters cut out of sizzix love letters strip alphabet die, stamped with coffe bean ink on hero arts Kraft cs and all stuck on with matt multi medium) It truly has been a year of creativity and I for one am very glad that with the exception of April I managed to get all my coasters uploaded and shared on time.

This project has been almost a month in the making. It all started with an amazing (and I do mean AMAZING see her tribute to Mr Poe here)Toni’s Cupboard of Curiosities

So Toni then set us a Halloween Cyber Crop challenge to create our own spooktacular box/cupboard of curiosities. Unfortunately I do not own any configurations or other such things so Used a Twiddleybitz 6″x 6″ shadow box instead.

sadly I bought two of these some time ago at a craft show and when I went to paint and assemble the second one found out it was missing a vital piece that means I could not put it together or use it. So I had to go back to the drawing board. I had already had decided on what to use the other one for, had it painted and assembled as well. It was originally painted a metallic blue with silver paint sponged over the top to represent clouds (I forgot to take a photo of it this way sorry about that)

here is some of the elements I started with the other bottles and vials are from the Tim Holtz Ideaology range, a Tim Holtz Tree (misted in black soot and covered in Martha Stewart black onyx and white gold glitters), A miniature paper sack (its a die by Memory box), a skull from a halloween garland of skeletons as well as some of the bones, Satin, Grungeboard, glitter, a painting from this amazing artist Jim Smeltz who sells his work in miniature prints here, and the candles are actually hand made by me but more on that later.

here is the Box before it was Alcohol inked and filled (The ‘wallpaper’ is from Primas Firefly 6×6 paper pad)

It was a lot of fun creating my icky vials and bottles of things and such a shame that in the finished product you just do not see the bottom of the ‘blood’ vial. Both it and the bottle that looks like slime exploded out of it are a mix of Alcohol Ink and triple thick mixed and heated (Note please use tweezers or tongs and be careful cause it will bubble up and over it takes a bit of time and a few tries and cool downs to get it all to work) with a heat gun. I love how they turned out.

My bottle of eyes is actually sticky back pearl rhinestones in different sizes stuck together and then put in the bottle and covered with glossy accents. I swirled them all around with a long needle I have for bearmaking I love how it turned out.

Here is a pic of my project Alcohol inked. It was a process that took time and a couple of days to get so I was happy with the effect. I also covered the gargoyles ball with Black Onyx glitter just to give it a bit of a different look to the stone ball.

Here is a pic of what it was like just sort of sussing out where things may or may not end up

this is the right side of the bottom of the Shadow box, as you can see I used the smallest of the Idea-o-logy trees misted it in black soot distress mist (that I made myself) then covered it in black onyx glitter about 2-3 times shaking off the excess and allowing it to dry everytime. It dissappeared to much into the whole blackness of the inside of the box so I added over some white gold glitter as well which sort of looks like a mystical snow (at some point I am hoping to get a wee pentagram in a circle or some such for the top of the tree I just have not seen what I am looking for yet) The bones are from a halloween skeleton I took appart and painted with snow cap paint dabber (I wanted them to have more of a stark look rather than the aged look of the skull). I died some pink satin with Red Pepper Colour Wash and made the Witches hat out of grungeboard, and the cape as well (I will get some pics later with the little spider on the cape it just looks so much better than the cape on its own)

Now to the lefthand side of the bottom of the box.
here is where I used the skull, all my bottles and vials, the Witches broom and also a wee handmade paper bag filled with scolls (the scrolls are made from watercolour paper. Misted with a combination of mists including a pearl one as I wanted them to have a mystical type shimmer but still look really old I have a ton of these left as I went a smidge overboard) The edges are inked in Vintage Photo Distress ink and I misted them again to get it to bleed.

The next thing is a close up of my little candles and I can not believe I actually made these myself from scratch. I melted a beeswax candle I had in a container with my heat gun (would suggest a saucepan and a stove but I was in a hurry and not in need of that much wax) First you run your wick into the melted wax and roll it between your fingers this makes the wick thinner. Then dip the wick into your wax (I actually used cranberry alcohol ink in the wax be warned it does go a bit odd but overnight the colour came out and I love how my candles look now they were very pale and took a while for the colour to show through) Until you are happy with their thickness. I also rolled them in my fingers a bit to get the shape right. At this stage do not worry if they are too long. The best thing about the candelabra is that it sits up on it’s own. I then dipped the bottom of the candles in wax and set them into the candelabra. lit them to get them to be close to even, and used the wee tea light container I had been melting wax in to drip/pour over wax to make the candles look like they had been around for a while dripping. I also needed to light the candles again to get rid of the wax that covered over the wicks. It was an evenings work but I am so stoked with how they turned out. Here is a close up of them.

The finishing touch was the Amazing Art Print (I also got a lovely card, another print and a sticker on the back of the envelope all that can be used in future projects)

And here it is My Witches House Shadow Box (Promise I will get a pic with my glittery black spider tomorrow I just wanted to share this project now that it is done though I can’t promise I will not add to it over time)

and thats it for now 🙂 I had so much fun doing this and though it did not turn out as gruesome as I had wanted it to I would happily tackle another such project with enthusiasm.

It is funny I love these but the pics do not do the justice then I also saw some of the amazing and sophisticated ones others did and was like hmm mine feel a bit amature then I remember I also do not have the hugest stash and I always make the most of what I have plus. I really am happy with how unique these are and they took so much work and I enjoyed making them all so much.

Take special note of the ‘dirt’ it took a lot of effort, an expresso paint dabber, some plastic and a craft knife to scrape the paint off the plastic but I really love how it turned out.

The first is aptly titled ‘Trick or Treat’ and I love that I got to use my wee 1″ paper bag die

The Second I used the Tim Holtz Foil tape technique and grunged up the CB cut and emboss grave titled “Alas Poor Yorick” (cutting that skull in half was a beep totally worth it however any scrapping companies out there seriously some half skulls ie just the front would rock)

and the last one I have to say I really wanted the arm to look zombie like so went totally ott with the alco inks (like I did on all the skeleton bits). I also used a Vintaj embossing folder I have with some cheap thin tags I got from a local discount store. Alcohol inks and Triple thick. The background is painted with distress re inkers. And this one has a really neat trick to it

So the original
and without the pendant thats right the spooky tree tag can be taken off and worn or used on something else.

and thats the Halloween ATC’s it was such fun playing with less pretty darker things for a change.